High-content analysis of larval phenotypes for the screening of xenobiotic toxicity using Phallusia mammillata embryos

International audienceIn recent years, pollution of surface waters with xenobiotic compounds became an issue of concern in society and has been the object of numerous studies. Most of these xenobiotic compounds are man-made molecules and some of them are qualified as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) when they interfere with hormones actions. Several studies have investigated the teratogenic impacts of EDCs in vertebrates (including marine vertebrates). However, the impact of such EDCs on marine invertebrates is much debated and still largely obscure. In addition, DNA-altering genotoxicants can induce embryonic malformations. The goal of this study is to develop a reliable and effective test for assessing toxicity of chemicals using embryos of the ascidian (Phallusia mammillata) in order to find phenotypic signatures associated with xenobiotics. We evaluated embryonic malformations with high-content analysis of larval phenotypes by scoring several quantitative and qualitative morphometric endpoints on a single image of Phallusia tadpole larvae with semi-automated image analysis. Using this approach we screened different classes of toxicants including genotoxicants, known or suspected EDCs and nuclear receptors (NRs) ligands. The screen presented here reveals a specific phenotypic signature for ligands of retinoic acid receptor/retinoid X receptor. Analysis of larval morphology combined with DNA staining revealed that embryos with DNA aberrations displayed severe malformations affecting multiple aspects of embryonic development. In contrast EDCs exposure induced no or little DNA aberrations and affected mainly neural development. Therefore the ascidian embryo/larval assay presented here can allow to distinguish the type of teratogenicity induced by different classes of toxicants